Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was briefed by US President Donald Trump’s special envoys after their latest trip to Moscow and said the two Americans were working on plans for a follow-up visit to Kyiv in the near future.

At the same time, while Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Bishkek to attend a regional summit, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made a surprise appearance at a G20 finance meeting in North Carolina, prompting anger from some participants over the presence of Russia’s representative while the country remains at war with Ukraine.

Although the battlefield in Ukraine remained relatively calm throughout the day, diplomacy took center stage on August 31, underscoring how much of the current focus has shifted from front-line developments to back-channel negotiations and multilateral forums.

Trump has confirmed that he will send envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Kyiv in the coming weeks in what will be their first visit to Ukraine since taking leading roles in the administration’s effort to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Witkoff and Kushner have traveled to Moscow and met with Russian representatives in the US multiple times during Trump’s second term, drawing criticism that the administration has shown favoritism toward Putin and the Kremlin.

"We will see what the US president’s envoys can accomplish," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram after what he described as a "detailed and constructive" call with the two.

"September can change a lot, and together with our partners, we must do everything possible to protect people, protect lives, and achieve peace."

He added: "There needs to be the right mindset in Moscow -- from Putin, a mindset to end the war, not to keep fighting. For now, unfortunately, all the intel -- both ours and our partners’ -- and all the signals from Russia indicate that the Russian leader personally wants more war."

Not 'Normal'

In Asheville, North Carolina, Siluanov attended his first G20 gathering since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Russia’s exclusion from such meetings.

Trump has repeatedly spoken about returning Russia to international groupings, including the Group of 7 industrialized nations, despite strong opposition from most other member states.

The G20 consists of 19 countries and the European Union and accounts for around 85 percent of the world’s economy and two-thirds of its population, which helps explain why the forum remains politically sensitive even when a member state is isolated diplomatically.

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said the situation with Russia was not "normal" and expressed frustration that there had been no advance warning about Siluanov’s participation.

"People are dying every day. We have just seen another escalation in the [Russian] attacks," Klingbeil said. "You cannot simply return to normality."

"I find the signal sent by receiving the Russian finance minister here quite troubling," Klingbeil told reporters in Asheville. "I would have wanted greater clarity from the American side that he should not be received here as a normal guest."

Officials from European countries told Reuters that European ministers and central bankers opposed appearing in the usual "family photo" of participants. The photograph was then taken without Siluanov.

At a G20 finance ministers’ meeting in 2022 that Siluanov attended remotely, the United States under then-President Joe Biden led a multinational walkout as Russian officials spoke.

When asked about Siluanov’s attendance this time, White House spokesman Kush Desai told AFP that the US administration has been working with Moscow to push for a deal that "would stop the endless bloodshed that the president has really condemned."

"The president and the administration will never shy away from talking with the folks we need to talk to, to further that," he said. "That’s what we’re working on here at the G20."

Russia’s Finance Ministry said Siluanov and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held bilateral talks on Russia-US cooperation on financial issues and on interaction within the framework of the G20.

A US official told AFP that the Treasury chief advocated for Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine during the face-to-face meeting.

By RFE/RL